Thursday, February 11, 2016

Following on from my previous post, I decided to finish off my adventures with Space Lord Leoric by using the design to create some packaging for an action figure...

This turned out to be far more challenging than I was expecting, and required a lot more work than either the VHS or NES packaging.

While the cardboard backing was relatively straightforward to build and compose (using the established design and my logo with an added grid and streak effect to occupy the dead space above the logo), the vacuum-formed plastic shell and action figure were anything but and occupied the majority of my time.

The plastic shell was built from 30+ layers to create the end result, starting from a basic rectangular outline, and the action figure was created from a Frankenstein mish-mash of grabs from in-game, cut together and posed to create something approaching the appearance of a toy.

Once these elements were all done I was left with the 'clean' version of the image (which is a nice, glossy image that looks like the product has just hit the shelves). Just as with the previous VHS and NES designs, I then spent another day distressing and weathering the image to create the worn, aged look seen above.

To give you an idea of this process, here's both the clean and aged versions side-by-side...

The aging process for the cardboard backing required tearing, folding, cracking and mottling, while the plastic shell used more subtle elements such as scratching, gloss highlights and even the appearance of adhesive affixing it to the backing.

Together, these hopefully all combine to create something that looks era appropriate.